American Way of Bombing

Aerial bombardment remains important to military strategy, but the norms governing bombing and the harm it imposes on civilians have evolved. The past century has seen everything from deliberate attacks against rebellious villagers by Italian and British colonial forces in the Middle East to scrupulous efforts to avoid "collateral damage" in the counterinsurgency and antiterrorist wars of today. The American Way of Bombing brings together prominent military historians, practitioners, civilian and military legal experts, political scientists, philosophers, and anthropologists to explore the evolution of ethical and legal norms governing air warfare. Focusing primarily on the United States—as the world’s preeminent military power and the one most frequently engaged in air warfare, its practice has influenced normative change in this domain, and will continue to do so—the authors address such topics as firebombing of cities during World War II; the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the deployment of airpower in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya; and the use of unmanned drones for surveillance and attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and elsewhere.

The American Way of Bombing: Changing Ethical and Legal Norms, From Flying Fortresses to Drones, edited by Matthew Evangelista and Henry Shue, brings together an array of historians, practitioners, and legal experts from both the military and civilian worlds. Overall, the volume is balanced and the authors engage with logic and consistency. This collection is a vital resource for military professionals, policymakers, and scholars alike. Unfortunately, the challenges of norm-setting in aerial warfare chronicled here are far from over and likely to become even more contentious in light of ongoing military and counterterrorist operations across the globe and in the face of rapid technological change., One of the virtues ofThe American Way of Bombingis to remind us of the non-linear way in which airpower has evolved, and of the frequent disconnect between stated intentions and actual practice., The book is well written. The author provides abundant research notes, cites appropriate legal frameworks, and indicates where the United States stands with respect to each of them.... I highly recommend this book for military officers. It provides discussion of the appropriate legal and moral issues, and it makes the reader consider the second- and third-order effects created by some of our unique weapon systems and how those effects will likely impact our ability to employ such weapons in the future.

Matthew Evangelista is President White Professor of History and Political Science at Cornell University. He is the author of several books, including Unarmed Forces, also from Cornell, and Gender, Nationalism, and War. Henry Shue is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for International Studies, Department of Politics and International Relations and Emeritus Research Fellow, Merton College, at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection and Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy.